Among the few years I have been involved with playing and coding Muds, I've always noticed a lack of good documentation which details the process of planning an area. Some documents are little more than a list of DO's and DONT's concerning descriptions. Others just list the rules involved with a specific Mud's idea of an area (required number of rooms, not using "you" in a description, etc.)
The purpose of this document is to help the new area builder create an excellent area that will definitely add to the Mud they are building for. How I do this is to describe a method for planning an area that someone wants to make. This method is not particular to LPMuds (which Cosmos is), but can be used with any type of online adventure game.
I liken planning an area on a Mud to planning a theatrical play. I think this analogy works nicely. After all, what is a Mud if it's not Interactive Fiction? So what I try to do is provide steps to build a plan, starting with the grand design of the Mud you're involved with, and ending with the minute details of your area.
The universe of a Mud is the combination of both physical and non-physical realms. The physical realm consists of areas, monsters, or items the player can pick up. The non-physical realm consists of ideas, beliefs, rules and policies that are found within the Mud. Every Mud contains these two realms, no matter how shallow/deep or large/small they are.
The reason these definitions are given is because it is important for the area maker to get a good view of what the mud is all about. Explore the areas as a coder, carefully read the descriptions you might have ignored as a player. Read the documents about other coder's areas (if there are any). Make sure you fully understand the physical and non-physical nature of your Mud's Universe.
Once you've gotten yourself aquainted with the entirety of the Mud, it is time to find where the deficiencies are. What type of area is missing? What ideas have not been explored yet? Would a new area of type X, or another area of type Y really be beneficial to the mud? These are the types of questions that should be in the back of your mind. The whole point of area making is to ADD SOMETHING UNIQUE to the Mud.
Once you understand what has already been done in the universe of your Mud, it is time to add your story to it. The next section deals with planning a story.
Since you now know what stories have been told in the Universe of your Mud, you are better equipped to make something new and unique that will benefit the Mud. This is perhaps the most difficult part of area making, due to the fact that it requires the largest amount of creative thought.
At this point you should be thinking about the "big picture" of your area. This will allow you to develop the story and make the overall theme interesting to the player. What is good to do (and required at CosmosMUD) is to write up an AREA file in your directory which gives a good summary of the story your area holds. This file could include the general outline of what is currently going on, the atmosphere of the situation, who are the good/bad guys, etc.
While you are planning out the story, it is instructive to do what authors do when they craft a story: capture a piece of truth about humanity. Be it a social, personal, or spiritual issue that is expressed, it is important to graft that into your story to give it some meaning and purpose. If the player picks up on this idea their mudding experience will be improved a hundredfold.
This injection of substance in your area is easiest done by setting up a conflict situation. If you like robots, make them sentient robots enslaved by an organic race. If you want to have Orcs, set up a love/betrayal story for two young Orcs.
An example: I remember on one Mud I played there was a Fairy Forest area. There were a lot of magical rubies you could find among the bushes to sell for gold back at the shops. There was a few fairies that would heal you if you gave them a ruby, and there were plenty of rabbits and deer to kill in the forest. All the descriptions were well done, and everything was coded nicely as well, but THE AREA WAS BORING BECAUSE THERE WAS NO CONFLICT AT ALL!! The area maker should have put an evil witch in the forest, or some other type of obstacle, which was trying to get rid of the fairies... maybe make it roam around the forest and steal rubies from players.
Another example: A different Mud had an Evil Troll village, which had 70+ rooms and was quite large and intricate. The whole village was filled with these large Trolls, who lived in wooden shacks and slummy quarters. They were all aggressive, and attacked the player if the player had a good alignment. It was understood throughout the Mud that this area was an "Evil" area and if you were not evil yourself you will be attacked. This was all well and good, but IT'S STORY WAS BORING!! The area did not have any type of dynamic situation presented at all, it was all painted with evil paint, which made it all the same. The area maker could have put a 'dungeon' with some innocent prisoners locked up there, maybe from a rival Goblin village. The player could have been able to save these prisoners, or at least do tasks for them like deliver food and water.
I used the second example above to drive home a point. While people can argue (and rightly so) that this area has conflict, it only has one kind (and not the most important kind story-wise). The second area has mere conflict with the player (Trolls attacking), there was no conflict within the area itself. It is conflict within the area that is key to making an interesting story for the player.
All of this planning for the story will complete the non-physical apsect of your area. This is definitely the part that adds most to the Universe of the Mud. Any good story can be made into an excellent area on a Mud. This is what Muds were meant for!!
Now that the non-physical aspect is done, it is time to begin planning the specific physical representation of your area. The next section deals with the stage.
The stage is the setting of your area. The physical "rooms" that make up the area give the story form and space. The stage needs to fit the story in both content and size. Another way the stage needs to complement the story is by it's mood.
Trying to fit the 'mood' of your story with the area you had in mind is not all that difficult a task and should come naturally. Does the story involve illegal testing on alien babies? Then the stage should most likely be a hidden lab which is pristine and medical. Or it may be an Ogre Mine, in that case the area would be dark and dirty. It is the mood of the area that you can express through your descriptions. You can affect the player with room descriptions (if they read them!) nearly as much as affecting them with active enemies and items.
When you are developing the mood of the area through your stage, it's a good idea to try and juxtapose sections within the area. By this I mean within your one area, have two different places. A small biosphere colony is interesting enough, but if you allow the player to travel outside it's walls into the desolate climate of the planet it is on, that would be much more interesting, and would add to the area. This juxtaposition within your area will cause the player to take notice, since they'll have something immediate to compare it to.
When planning the stage it is also beneficial to draw a map on a piece of paper. Some people recommend that this map be a free- form area and not restricted to individual rooms during the planning stage. I tend to agree. This approach helps you to see a 'fluid' area with curves, ridges, and other non-blockish shapes. Think about where things would go logically, while using a generous amount of imagination.
After the free-form map is complete, it's a good idea to finally break it up into individual rooms. If you do this now while the specifics of the stage are in mind, it will make it easier for you down the road when you actually start coding the rooms. You can do this on a separate sheet of paper (tracing paper works well) or you can do it right on the free-form map. Draw boxes to denote the rooms, and lines to show individual exits connecting the rooms, as in this diagram:
+-+ +-+ +-+
| | | | | |
+-+ +-+ +-+
\ | /
\ | /
+-+ +-+ +-+
| |--| |--| |
+-+ +-+ +-+
If there are any special exits (not n/e/s/w) then write the exit name along the line that connects the two rooms. One-way exits, if there are any, can be denoted by an arrow. If this is your first area, it would probably be best to start out small. A small area is around 15-25 rooms, an average area is between 30-50, a good sized area is 75-100, and a very large area is 150-200.
When the stage is finished being planned, it is time to populate the stage with actors. The next section will go over how to plan just 'who' will be in your area.
Actors in an area are non-player characters (NPCs) that the player can interact with. An NPC can be friendly or aggressive, it can also talk or just grunt. There are two obvious types of NPCs, those that are active, and those that are passive and do nothing. These two types are defined as Main actors, and Extras.
Main actors are those NPCs that are lively and usually have an active part in the story. These are, for the most part, intelligent species which can interact with the player and offer information or other services. One thing all Main Actors should have in common is that they react to the player either through speech or action. It is mandatory that each monster react to the player or have some 'life' to it, so it's not just standing there like a drone.
Extras are the NPCs which interact much with the player except to provide target practice. They might talk and sputter and maybe even attack the player immediately. An example of an extra might be a dog or a guardian robot. Even though extras don't interact directly with the player, they still need to be part of the story.
So who should be a Main actor and who should be an extra? Well, most NPCs in your area should be Main actors. Does your area take place on a battlefield? Don't have the troops just sitting around polishing their guns... give each of them a life and distinct personality, and have them respond to the player. This might seem like a lot of extra work, but the extra work will noticably affect your area in a positive way. You should only use extras when necessary... such as groups of animals, or unintelligible robot droids which can't interact.
Actors don't come on the stage bare and naked. There are props to enhance their characteristics and allow the player to take part of the story away with them. The next section discusses props and their importance to an area.
Props are objects that enhance both the Actor's and the Stage's appearance. They can be things Actors carry around and use, or objects that are found scattered around the area. Examples could be a Laser Rifle carried by a Cyborg soldier, or an ATM machine in the middle of a busy section of town.
The most important thing to think of when planning props in an area is to make sure it is appropriate in its surroundings. Obviously a low-tech society won't be carrying around lasers, but might be able to hold a pistol.
Only have actors carrying props that make sense. If you give a farmer a laser, it will seem odd. Give him a rake and watch the fun when he starts swinging it wildly at the player. Extras should probably not be carrying many props, and if they are animals they should definitely not be carrying around credits. There's nothing worse than killing a wolf and finding 50 credits on its corpse. Unless it's one of those rare credit-eating wolves, it detracts from any realism we're trying to provide.
Just like actors, the stage shouldn't have inappropriate props either. If the player is in the slums, they shouldn't be able to find rare jewelry lying around in the corner somewhere. Maybe a broken pipe, or some dirty gloves. Slums should be as slummy as possible to drive home the atmosphere of the place to the player.
Props are there to provide even more interaction with the player. And especially if they can be picked up, it's as if the player is taking a piece of the story with them. "Oh, this rifle? Yeah I pulled it off a soldier at Station X." In the next section we will turn to the topic of our audience... the players!
By now planning the non-physical and physical aspects of the area should have been completed. It's time to sit back and think about how this will impact those who are on the receiving end of things... the Audience.
The Audience is, of course, the players in the mud. They are ultimately the people who will be experiencing your area from the outside without any prior knowledge of the planning phase. In order to make the area more enjoyable for the people it is intended for, there are a few attributes which relate to players that a good area should have:
1. Interactive
This was mentioned during the Props and Audience sections. But just want to expound on the subject of interaction.
Every area should be interactive. Interaction is what separates a Mud from a Novel. The more interactive an area is (the more things to DO), the more fun it is for players.
Interaction can occur in NPCs and items. NPCs can talk back to a player, answer questions, sell/buy/take/give items, or give riddles. Items can be used to manipulate the surroundings of the player, or the player themselves.
The biggest benefit of interaction is that it maintains interest for the player because the game is "playing back" with them. They aren't just moping around an area killing things. They can turn on/off switches, work equipment, use an item from your area elsewhere on the Mud. The more interaction they can get, the less boredom your players will experience.
2. Challenging
Challenge can make or break a game. If the game itself is too challenging, players will become disheartened and have no will to play any longer. If the game is too easy, the players will not care about playing and feel like it's not worthy of their time. A balance of challenge and fun is difficult to achieve.
Within an area you have control over how challenging it will be for the player. Of course there are game mechanics involved in how hard it will be for the player to beat a monster of X strength, etc. But this isn't really the concern of the area builder, as it is part of the core game itself and affects all areas of the game equally.
There are two kinds of challenges: mental and physical. Both have their place in an area, Mental challenge is more with quests and puzzles that your area may contain. Maybe figuring out a password to a locked door would be a mental challenge. Physical challenges are based on the current state of the player vs. the environment they are in. If they require high strength to climb a rock wall, that is a physical challenge. A physical challenge can also be a group of ogres blocking a path you need to get through. It's good to obtain a balance between mental and physical challenges, so that players concerned with one or the other will still feel challenged at some point in your area.
The biggest benefit of challenges is that they give the player a sense of accomplishment when the overcome the challenge. It can feel like they've done something important and difficult that not everybody has been able to do yet.
3. Helpful
That an area is helpful to the player seems like kind of an odd concept. When I say helpful, I mean that it can help the player PLAY the Mud better. This can be within the area itself, or just with the general game.
The area should provide means where the player can continue their goal of getting stronger, getting richer, or getting entertained. Having a high level area filled with crappy equipment is not really a good idea. Some of the more picky and "stat staring" players will only go where they can get good equipment or good money, and that would mean they'd never step foot in your area.
The biggest benefit of an area being helfpul to the player is that they'll feel like they're being rewarded for their effort. They will be expecting the "spoil" to equal the "toil".
4. Surprising
An area that contains a few surprises for the player will be exciting. Having a monster pop out at the player suddenly, or causing an unexpected event, will definitely keep them interested in the area.
Another way to make the area surprising is to have a potential twist in the story in the middle or the end of the quest. Scientists complain about alien monsters attacking their lab... but only after some investigation does the player find out that they are doing heinous tests on alien babies.
Making the player surprised is difficult to do, but worth it if it can be pulled off. In most cases some custom coding will have to be done in order to get a special event to trigger. This isn't necessary for an area to be good, but it is definitely a perk.
5. Meaningful
People will accuse me of being cheesy, but every area should express something meaningful to the player. This could be a truth about humanity (mentioned above in story section) or some important lesson to be learned. It could also be some information that adds to the theme of the Mud and makes it a more fulfilling experience.
This is accomplished by bringing the meaning of your story to the player through the area itself. Don't just have an NPC blab about the situation, have it so the player will be able to piece together the storyline from various parts of your area. In a warzone each side could tell their story, and leave it to the player to decide which is right and which is wrong.
Giving an area some meaning that the player can relate to adds to the Mud as a whole, not just with your individual area. Even if it goes unnoticed by some of the "hack n' slash" players, the players that do recognize the meaning will appreciate your area all the more.
This document was meant to help the beginning area builder start thinking about all the right things. The main point is that an area is not just written words on a screen, but is a sum of many parts both physical and non-physical. Areas add size/complexity to a particular Mud, but they also bring the game to life. Such a responsibility should not be taken lightly, which is why I've taken time to explain one way in which areas can be planned.
If you think I've gotten something wrong, or think I've missed an important aspect of area planning, please don't hesitate to write me an email. If you like what you've read and want to use it in your Mud's system or webpage for your builder's benefit, please let me know as I'd like to hear from you.
Tiresius@Cosmos